Location choice for direct foreign investment in new hospitals in China by using ANP and TOPSIS

This study models location choices for foreign direct investments in new hospitals in China as an multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem and designs develops a multidirectional relationship decision model combines the techniques of analytic network process (ANP) and technique for order performance based on similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS). This study discusses applying ANP to the relative weighting of multiple assessment criteria. The TOPSIS approach is employed to rank 15 counties without the Zhoushan of China’s Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region in terms of their overall performance under the decision model. To illustrate how the proposed approach is applied to the problem of selecting locations for new hospitals in China an empirical study of a real case is performed. This study demonstrates the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed assessment procedure.     

基于模糊多准则决策方法的物流中心选址研究

提出了一种物流中心选址的模糊多准则决策算法,以降低决策者主观偏好及评估过程中模糊和不确定因素对选址决策的影响。算法可同时考虑质化与量化因素及因素间不同权重的影响。模糊估计值的隶属函数可迭代求出,再应用平均位移原理进行积分推导来求解模糊值以进行各候选位置的比序。最后,以应用实例对模型的有效性和可行性进行了验证。     

Sustainable Supplier Selection in Megaprojects: Grey Ordinal Priority Approach

Due to mounting environmental and social challenges, supplier selection has become one of the most critical tasks of project-oriented organizations. Because supplier selection can affect the long-term success and profitability of the organizations and their projects, directly, embracing sustainability can add value in the equation. Considering sustainability measures can positively guide project managers in making better decisions for the projects in the long term. Therefore, the current study attempts to provide a conceptual model for selecting the best supplier based on a sustainability framework in megaprojects. Meanwhile, decision-making methods can be employed as a proper tool to find the best supplier. Ordinal priority approach (OPA) is a recent development in multiple criteria decision making (MCDM), while it has many benefits compared with other methods like analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). However, this method cannot consider multiple ranks during the decision-making process, and using an uncertainty approach feels strongly. Grey systems theory (GST) can consider uncertainties with no need for large sample or proposing membership function. Hence, the current study employed the GST to consider multiple ranks for criteria and alternatives in the OPA method. This is the first time that a sustainable supplier selection framework has been presented for megaprojects with the aid of the Grey OPA (OPA-G) method. Finally, a case study has been examined to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results show that the proposed approach can be used in real-world situations and it has acceptable performance under uncertainty conditions.     

A mutual insurance diffusion stochastic control problem

This paper determines the optimal loading factor policy of a mutual insurance firm. Insurance is viewed as a collective process of N persons paying fixed (or variable, contingent) premiums and seeking protection against claims. Risk reduction for each person is then exercised through a distribution of risk by aggregating individual risks and by accumulating cash (net of operating expenses) to meet possible contingent claims. By assuming an approximate claims diffusion process, stochastic control problems for selecting the optimum loading factor policies are stated and resolved analytically. In particular, the implicit cost of bankruptcy is computed and an optimum variable-feedback loading policy is established.     

Using nonparametric methods in social surveys: an empirical study

The most common form of data for socio-economic studies comes from survey sampling. Often the designs of such surveys are complex and use stratification as a method for selecting sample units. A parametric regression model is widely employed for the analysis of such survey data. However the use of a parametric model to represent the relationship between the variables can be inappropriate. A natural alternative is to adopt a nonparametric approach. In this article we address the problem of estimating the finite population mean under stratified sampling. A new stratified estimator based on nonparametric regression is proposed for stratification with proportional allocation, optimum allocation and post-stratification. We focus on an educational and labor-related context with natural populations to test the proposed nonparametric method. Simulated populations have also been considered to evaluate the practical performance of the proposed method.     

Costs, Institutional Mobility Barriers, and Market Structure: Advertising Agencies as Multiproduct Firms

What accounts for the diversity and limited concentration that has long characterized the organization of the advertising agency industry? This question is addressed by treating an advertising agency as a multiproduct firm. The firm's product line or service mix is defined in terms of the set of different media categories where an agency places the advertising messages that it creates on behalf of its clients. Evidence is presented indicating that the structure of demand and costs in the advertising agency industry conforms to the conditions that MacDonald and Slivinski showed were required for an industry to sustain an equilibrium with diversified firms. Building on this framework, we formulate a set of three hypotheses relating to the realization of product-specific scale and scope economies. The first two hypotheses posit that given low fixed costs and minimal entry barriers, both media-specific scale and scope economies are available and can be exploited by relatively small-size agencies. The third hypothesis suggests that large agencies may experience diseconomies of scope as a consequence of excessive diversification induced by two pervasive industry institutional phenomena: (1) “bundling” of agency services to match client demand for a mix of media advertising, and (2) “conflict policy,” which prohibits an agency from serving competing accounts and operates as a mobility constraint. Utilizing a multiproduct cost function, we estimate media-specific scale and scope economies for a cross section of 401 U.S. agencies in 1987. The results obtained support the set of three hypotheses outlined above. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the restructuring currently underway in this industry.     

A comparative site evaluation study for relocating Japanese government agencies out of Tokyo

As a national project of Japan, plans for the relocation of several government agencies out of Tokyo have been ongoing. This paper is concerned with the problem of site selection for this project. The National Land Agency, the agency responsible for this project, has declared that the process of site selection should be rational, open to the public and easily understandable. In an effort to meet these requirements, we propose a consensus-making method for reaching a group decision, based on a combination of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the Assurance Region model of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Several strategic uses of these methodologies, e.g., Delphi procedures, are also discussed. Based on these analyses, the “Wise Men” Committee for deciding the best site has chosen two from among ten contenders, one from the North-East and the other from the Central part of Japan, as candidates for the best relocation site. We could not discriminate between the two with respect to the multiple criteria chosen for evaluating sites. The Committee recommended the two sites to the Prime Minister at the end of December 1999. The Prime Minister reported this conclusion to the Diet. This topic is currently the focus of political discussions in the Diet. In this report, the authors summarize the decision-making processes that the Wise Men Committee followed, putting emphasis on the methodological aspects.     

A grant rationing model for a health care system.

Most public health programs are created through a political process and the health administrator's resource allocation decision is influenced not only by the relative performance of the subunits but also by political considerations. This paper presents a goal programming model for rationing available grants to competing health care subunits on the basis of performance subject to resource and political constraints. Performance is defined in terms of output adjusted for non-compliance on the identified quality of care and administrative efficiency criteria. The quality and efficiency criteria are those specified by the Federal agency as amended by local funding authorities and subunit administrators through a Delphi process. The model has the advantage of flexibility and can be easily adapted to suit prevailing financial and political conditions. In particular, it can be used as a viable analytical tool in health care and other public service agencies where political considerations are important in resource allocation decisions.     

A multi-criteria approach to local tax planning

A city tax model based on the analytic hierarchy process is developed. This model allows city officials to explicitly take into account the existence of multiple decision criteria in selecting new tax options. Opinions from tax experts are used to relate tax plans to decision criteria. The paper explores the feasibility of applying commonly available decision tools to facilitate and improve decision making in local government.     

Determination of an optimal set of design requirements using house of quality

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been used to translate customer needs and wants into technical design requirements in order to increase customer satisfaction. QFD utilizes the house of quality (HOQ), which is a matrix providing a conceptual map for the design process, as a construct for understanding Customer Requirements (CRs) and establishing priorities of Design Requirements (DRs) to satisfy them. Some methodological issues occurring in the conventional HOQ are discussed, and then a new integrative decision model for selecting an optimal set of DRs is presented using a modified HOQ model. The modified HOQ prioritization procedure employs a multi-attribute decision method for assigning relationship ratings between CRs and DRs instead of a conventional relationship rating scale, such as 1–3–9. The proposed decision model has been applied to an indoor air quality improvement problem as an illustrative example.     

Multivariate subset autoregressive modelling with zero constraints for detecting ‘overall causality’

The necessary and sufficient condition to test for ‘overall causality’, i.e., the presence of Granger- causality and instantaneous causal relations, in a bivariate and trivariate autoregressive model with recursive form is discussed. It is argued that the conventional AR model (the reduced form AR) is a more straightforward and effective means of testing for ‘overall causality’. To detect instanta- neous causality it is proposed to select the best subset system in a residual regression system in conjunction with model selection criteria. The Canadian money-income-bank rate system is re-examined in this way and by using a previously proposed algorithm we identify the optimum multivariate subset AR with constraints to detect whether there is ‘overall causality’ in that system.     

The firm,the platform and the customer: A “double mangle” interpretation of social media for innovation

The aim of this article was to explore the relationship between human actors and technology in the context of a social media platform, developed by a leading Italian firm in the food industry, and created to keep in contact with its customers, while gathering innovative ideas from them.In order to address these issues, we adopt a theoretical approach that is deeply rooted in Pickering's “mangle” theory, and Jones' subsequent metaphor of “double dance of agency” i.e. human and material agencies. A longitudinal case study has been developed with two rounds of interviews with marketing and R&D managers. A total of 8 recorded interviews, for 22 h overall.We examined conditions in the ongoing functioning of the platform, and considered how the website's dynamic materiality configures and reconfigures the practices and possibilities of different modes of engagement by multiple users (i.e. firm employees and customers) and vice versa. Specifically, dealing with the case of a social media platform developed by a firm to gain clearly defined organizational ends, the entanglement is considered to be double. One entanglement is between the human agency of customers and the material agency of the social media platform. The other is between the human agency of the firm and the material agency of the social media platform, including all actions that human agents (i.e. firm employees) undertake in seeking to channel material agency and shape actions of other human agents, i.e. customers.     

Multicriteria framework for selecting a process modelling language

The choice of process modelling language can affect business process management (BPM) since each modelling language shows different features of a given process and may limit the ways in which a process can be described and analysed. However, choosing the appropriate modelling language for process modelling has become a difficult task because of the availability of a large number modelling languages and also due to the lack of guidelines on evaluating, and comparing languages so as to assist in selecting the most appropriate one. This paper proposes a framework for selecting a modelling language in accordance with the purposes of modelling. This framework is based on the semiotic quality framework (SEQUAL) for evaluating process modelling languages and a multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) approach in order to select the most appropriate language for BPM. This study does not attempt to set out new forms of assessment and evaluation criteria, but does attempt to demonstrate how two existing approaches can be combined so as to solve the problem of selection of modelling language. The framework is described in this paper and then demonstrated by means of an example. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of using SEQUAL and MCDA in an integrated manner are discussed.     

Planning step-stress life test with progressively type I group-censored exponential data

Accelerated life testing of products is used to get information quickly on their lifetime distributions. This paper discusses a k -stage step-stress accelerated life test under progressive type I censoring with grouped data. An exponential lifetime distribution with mean life that is a log-linear function of stress is considered. A cumulative exposure model is also assumed. We use the maximum likelihood method to obtain the estimators of the model parameters. The methods for obtaining the optimum test plan are investigated using the variance-optimality and D-optimality criteria. Some numerical studies are discussed to illustrate the proposed criteria.     

Fuzzy grey relation method for multiple criteria decision-making problems

Combining the concepts of fuzzy set theory, entropy, ideal, and grey relation analysis, a fuzzy grey relation method for multiple criteria decision-making problems is proposed. First, triangular fuzzy numbers and linguistic values characterized by triangular fuzzy numbers are used to evaluate the importance weights of all criteria and the superiority of all alternatives versus various criteria above the alternative level. Then, the concept of entropy is utilized to solve the adjusted integration weight of all objective criteria above the alternative level. Furthermore, using the concepts of ideal, the grey ration grades of various alternatives versus ideal solution are ranked to determine the best alternative. Finally, a numerical example of selecting most appropriate company to build a new highway is used to demonstrate the applicability of proposed method. The study results show that this method is an effective means for tackling MCDM problems in fuzzy and grey environments.     

A hybrid multi-criteria decision making approach for strategic retail location investment: Application to Turkish food retailing

Retail location selection decision is a critical and complex process which requires the evaluation and aggregation of multiple criteria and also the usage of appropriate data related to them. This study handles the problem at a strategic level and proposes a Monte Carlo simulation based multi-criteria strategic location decision model for food retailing. This model integrates two multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods which are Hesitant Analytic Hierarchy Process (H-AHP) and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) methods. Firstly, H-AHP method is used to obtain the weights of criteria to be used in GRA based on the experts' judgements. Secondly, simulation based GRA is used for ranking the alternative locations. Finally, the effectiveness and the applicability of the proposed model is illustrated with an application of strategic location investment decision of food retail stores in Turkey.     

空间桁架结构施工顺序优化分析

建筑物的施工顺序对空间桁架结构的内力、稳定性(安全性)、建设成本等产生很大的影响。考虑采用逆解析的方法，从计算机辅助决策的角度来寻求符合设定目标的最佳施工方案。编制了相应的程序，数值分析结果表明了此方法的实用性。     

AHP在总承包商选择项目中的应用探析

工程项目特点决定了对承包商面临着很大的风险。采用AHP方法来选择项目，为影响项目的风险因素和可供选择的项目构建了一个层次结构，并提出分析模型和计算方法，通过实例分析，AHP能够优先考虑影响因子，由此得到项目的权重综合排序，从而选择最后的项目。该方法能减少人为因素的影响，增强了决策的客观性和科学性。     

Integrating design metrics within the early supplier selection process

It has been found from the contemporary research in the fields of supply chain management and concurrent engineering that significant benefits can be achieved if suppliers are involved in product development. However, recent investigations in manufacturing industries have revealed that early supplier involvement in the design process is not widely practiced. One issue is the lack of an appropriate customer–supplier interface to assess the suitability of suppliers with reference to design criteria. This paper proposes a mechanism for evaluating supplier involvement during product development. The assessment tool includes four types of distinctive indices to measure supplier involvement in the design process, namely: Satisfaction Index, Flexibility Index, Risk Index, and Confidence Index. These indices measure the extent to which both the customer requirements and the supplier capabilities match or mismatch and therefore reflect the potential or risk of signing a project contract. The proposed methodology is discussed within a multinational telecommunications company and preliminary analysis indicates that the approach provides an effective mechanism for selecting suppliers involved in the product development process.     

Optimal targeting with entry

We study an advertising agency's optimal choice of targeting technology with endogenous market structure, namely, when targeting changes firms' entry strategies into the advertising and product market. We show that the advertising agency faces a trade‐off between demand‐expansion and profit‐dissipation: The former arises as targeting induces more entry and increases the demand for advertising; the latter refers to that targeting relaxes competition by inducing more differentiation. We show that perfect targeting is not optimal for the advertising agency. Compared to social optimum, the advertising agency underinvests in targeting when investment cost is low and overinvests when targeting is costly.